I could care less what anyone uses to load. It sure doesn't effect me. The reason for my post is theres lots of beginning loaders and loaders that want to step up the first time to a progressive because they just need more ammo. Natural tendency is for them to go cheap. they might just be on the borderline of actually needing a progressive and they don't want to shell out 500 dollars or more. I WAS ONE OF THEM AT ONE TIME. So they (me) buy a pro 1000 or loadmaster and struggle with it and end up selling it for half what they paid for it and step up to a better press or get so discusted they go back to there single stage. Most (not all) of them would have been better off to save a few more months and buy a Dillon to start with.
Say what you want but I don't know of to many competitive shooters that load on lee presses. About all that I know use Dillon stuff. I'm also not saying there isn't guys mechanically inclined enough to make those lees spit out ammo. But there a very small percentage of people buying presses. Like I said I'm not talking down on lee. I don't have much great to say about my LNL's either. For the most part I can spend a day running one with a case feeder. Tweak the timing occasionally clear the case feeder feeding problems, clear the case feeder trouble feeding cases into the tube or I can load on one of my 550s and load and load and load without a single problem. Yup its slower but at the end of the day id about bet I end up with the pretty much the same amount of ammo and leave the loading room a lot less frustrated.
Now ive ran 650s and 1050s and they will leave my lnl and 550 in there dust trail. Bottom line is I could one 550 and one 650 and a single stage and be set for life. Yup, I make mistakes too. I'm just as susceptible to caving to the "save money" bs as the next guy. I lost all my loading gear in a fire. At that time I had a 550 and 5 square deals and a rock crusher. When I set up my loading room after the fire I could have used my head and passed on the lnls that I bought because they gave me a 1000 free bullets and were a couple hundred bucks less then 650s but I had nobody on line telling me that they were so much trouble. I wish someone would have grabbed me by the ear and set me straight because the bullets are long gone and the presses are still there. Bottom line is id trade both of them for one 650. That said I have lots less trouble with them then I did my lee progressives.
One other thing I will say about Dillon is there customer service is hands down better then lees. About the only company that's better is rcbs. heres a Dillon story for you. After my fire my buddy was over and I was picking through the ashes and found the ram from one of my 550s. He laughed and said Dillon claims there warrantee is great why don't you ask them if they can rebuild it. I called them and told them I lost 5 square deals and a 550 in the fire. They blew me away when the customer service guy said "I can do this. ill send you your choice of a new 550 or a square deal" I told him id prefer a 550 and they sent me a brand new 550 with a strong mount and a conversion in 45acp and a certificate for one other caliber change including dies. They didn't even ask to see pictures of the burnt press or make me return what was left of it!! Try that with your lee presses. So am I a bit of a cheerleader? YOU BET I AM. Bottom line is theres no magic or bs to any of this. Its like just about everything in life. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. you don't buy 600 dollar quality for 300 dollars anywhere I know. If the lees were even near as good as the dillons, Dillon would have been out of business 20 years ago.
Got a question..the link is to a you tube of a 650 being used to load 100 9mm in about 6 minutes...very impressive...however I got a question....they show no set up time or adjustments at all...some of the more knowledgable folks might explain how much time might really be involved? Also he makes at least "one mistake" and jams up the works....any problem with mis seating primers? I may be slower but I check the charges the "old way" with a light and by seating the primers by hand in a ram on my Lee Classic turret press. I've yet (and I know..."yet") to seat a primer backwards....I still think that the average loader can do very well with much less horsepower than a 650...and no...I don't have one and never have....I'll bet with my Lee Turret press with the dies set up in the carrier and using the Lee auto drum and looking at the powder charge with a press mounted light that I can come close to 100 rounds in a very respectable time...start to finish from initial set up to clean up and tear down for the next caliber and I think I might be more comfortable with the end result..."loading 100 rounds in 6 minutes" would be 1000 rounds in an hour...I'd think for a loader working for a club or the like that might be a real benefit but how many newer reloaders would need or want 1000 rounds in an hour of loading? I must be way to old to even fathom that kind of volume. I don't shoot competitive matches and my shooting might be more like one or maximum of two range visits a week...I probably shoot 100 rounds with these old hands and another 50 rounds of my 357 and I'm done...with a Dillon the way I see it I could load for a couple or three hours.... 2 or 3 times a year and be pretty well done. Guess I'm just old and slow and enjoy no stress or rush.
https://youtu.be/HLuz6tKI3Wk
Last edited by opos; 01-26-2018 at 07:00 PM.
^^^^^^ this is the bottle neck in my ammo production , I have a hard time making enough empty cartridges
Production rate on a lee turret is about 175 rd per hour. 200+ with add-ons. Setup time on a 650 is 12-20 mins setup time on the turret and load master are under 5 mins.
The 650 is depending on primers and case size from one to the other. That video is nothing special that can be done in short bursts on a LM. Gotta fill cases and primer hopper just like every body else.
Well I too had heard the kid was improving quality after the Dick left. NO idea if this is true or not (improved quality), but judging from what they DID put out, what their QC is now and CS still is, well, I still am not impressed and nothing I have read here really answers the question.
However I will state that after owning or using every press (EXCEPT the Cast Classics, and the reviews run 50-50 on those) Lee makes, I was HAPPY to spend the money for a Dillon and my ONLY regret was I didn't buy it first and save all that money, time and bother, because "I couldn't afford a Dillon". As it turned out, I couldn't NOT afford a Dillon!
Seeing as this thread has gone completely off the tracks and has become another Lee vs Dillon debate I'm going to make another off topic post and then be done.
In the past 2 days I have acquired for my Lee Pro1000 press a set of 45acp dies, a #2 45acp shellplate and a #4 380acp shellplate all for the outrageous price of $40.00 delivered to my mailbox. That now makes 5 different calibers I will be able to load on this one press and all for an investment of less than $300.00 now that is what I call Value.
It has gotten off topic. I'll throw in another thing for lee against Dillon. The primer flip tray is way easier than a primer tube to load up. Also the 550 powder drop station is a bit farther back and harder to see.
One other thing nice with the lee. It is way less exhausting to load on. I can use body weight to run the press, I never have to push forward to seat a primer. My arm on the lee is no more than a fulcrum point with the LM. However that grabbing the press and pushing forward on a Dillon to seat a primer wears me out...
I can remember when I was loading for shear production. I had my casting furnace fired up and ran 2 molds, a 125 RN for 38/9mm, and a 230 RN for 45acp. I would cast 100 each and refill my pot. I'd prime and charge 100 cases and by then the boolits were cool. I'd lube 100 and set them in the case mouths, followed by seat/crimp. By then, the pot was up to temp and time to repeat. Cold ice tea, a baseball game on the radio, and I had a good afternoon.
Once the 38s or 9mms were loaded, I would switch to loading 45acp. Lee turret press, the discontinued one. I like a turret because I tend to load 'single stage style' and check my powder in each case with a flashlight. Switching calibers is a minute or more tops. I generally cast about 2500 boolits/week, load and shoot 1250 rounds/week (500 wheelgun double action, 500 1911, 250 41 Mag at 100-150 yards double action slow fire) for a good range day. Best part was I got my range lead free from work, would trade 500 boolits for a pond of unique, 500 boolits for 1000 primers, and generally shot for free. I could not load/shoot that much on dad's old Pacific press. Oh, and I got to listen to a lot of baseball!
Common sense Gun Safety . . .
Is taught at the Range!
I guess I'm one of those people who bought the Loadmaster because it was cheaper than any other complete progressive. I think I paid around $200 for mine, maybe less, back in the 1990s. The priming system was not that great, but I decided early on to hand prime because I wanted to inspect the cases before loading them. My procedure is to deprime, clean, hand prime, then use the Loadmaster to drop powder, seat bullet, and crimp, all in different dies. I have never had a squib with this system in a couple decades of loading six different pistol cartridges running from .32 ACP to .45 Colt. I don't shoot a lot of centerfire metallic cartridges, maybe 1,000 total per year, as my real interest is shotgun games, but I'm satisfied and feel no need for anything else.
... If you powder coat a brand new LEE Load Master with Eastwood Ford Blue does a tree make noise if it falls in the woods if nobody is around ?
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Darn. I just looked at the original question about a Lee product and didn't see where he asked for a comparison with Dillon. Guess he just wanted to know about factory improvements on the current version. If it had been my question, I'd be sorry I asked!
This red vs blue stuff reminds me of election night...
There is a mod for the LEE Loadmaster press that ends all issues with the debate about it being made from pot metal die cast aluminum like a Dillon.
https://www.eastwood.com/hotcoat-pow...ight-blue.html
This is a deal changer. Just dust your LEE and bake @ 350-400 for 20-30 minutes. Two coats are recommended for safety.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |